Healthy School Meals Act 2010

More than a third of America’s children are overweight or obese. They are at risk for adult diseases like type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and hypertension. Over 30 million kids eat at least one meal at school each day. Most of these meals are high in saturated fat and cholesterol and low in fiber and other key nutrients, and most students cannot choose a healthful, plant-based alternative for their lunch tray. But YOU can help us make change in Washington and in school lunch lines across the country.Please join us to become a Healthy School Lunch Advocate and ask your Member of Congress to support H.R. 4870, the Healthy School Meals Act of 2010, which makes it easier for schools to offer healthful plant-based options and gives them an incentive to do so. Anyone can be a school lunch advocate!

Here in Denver our state senator is Diane Degette and her phone number is : (202)225-4431.Please call if you are interested.

Here is a website talking about the Legislation and more involved in the Healthy School Meals Act.

http://www.healthyschoollunches.org/lobbyday/index.cfm

Girls Rock Volunteer Opportunity

Hey All-

Are you looking to volunteer over the summer? Do you play guitar, bass,drums, sing or play keyboards or teach workshops to girls about music? Check out Girls Inc. Girls Rock Camp & Volunteer as a camp counselor this summer! Phone number and all that jazz is in the 'contact us' section.

http://www.girlsrockdenver.org/volunteer.php

Have a good one!

Rachelle

Student Staff

Center for Urban Connections

Center for Visual Arts Re-Opening Next Week

The Center for Visual Arts is a off campus art gallery that displays contemporary and interactive art to the Denver community. The center was designed to help expand one's thinking of art and to open doors to Metro State's art major program. It was founded in 1990 as a non-profit connected with Metro State. One of the CVA's goals is to bring visual arts to the mid west. They also bring connections from Metro State into the community, which creates synergy. This article, talks about the Grand Re-Opening of the CVA and its move to the Santa Fe district. There will be a celebration June 3rd from 7 to 9 pm to bring joy into its new home and to open a new exhibit Mix: CVA + The Art District on Santa Fe. This will also celebrate one of the first events celebrating our colleges 45th anniversary. Please click on the link and read more about the CVA & its Grand Re-Opening!

http://www.mscd.edu/~collcom/artman/publish/cva_twv7052610.shtml

Have a great day!

Rachelle

Student Staff

Center for Urban Connections

Eat Local Help Global Sustainability

Hey All-

I found an interesting article once again in the Daily Camera. A physician in Africa has once again brought up the topic of Malnutrition in young children and women. Food insecurity is known to rise during economic downfalls. The amount of meat that is consumed has grown 10 times more than the rate of population, on a global scale. In this insightful article, the facts are exposed that animals-based diets use more crops to produce the animal . This is ten times more than the process of plant products. as well as requires a lot of water, then again costing valuable resources to waste. I found one statistic that blew me away is that our country is raising and killing, 10 BILLION land animals a year. Being a global 'police officer' for this planet, its not too cool that we are creating an environment that we destroy daily by cutting down many organic resources that our environment has provided. This is a short summary of that article. If you would like more information please go tohttp://www.dailycamera.com/guest-opinions/ci_15136265#axzz0orpApiNt. If you are interested in how America produces food and wanting a real-insight into how food is made please watch Food Inc.

Thanks for reading-

Rachelle

Student Staff

Center for Urban Connections

Panera Opens a 'Pay as you want' Non-profit Store, Similar to SAME Cafe

In Denver, we have a great Non-profit called SAME Cafe. As previously stated in past blogs, SAME Cafe provides an all organic vegetarian meal for anyone who walks into their doors. The cost for the meal is based on a donation from the customer to pay what they think it was worth. If a person does not have funds to donate, they are encouraged to volunteer their time for an hour, by preparing food and cleaning at SAME Cafe. This is a fairly new concept to many, but it is something that has provided greatness in our community. Following the SAME Cafe non-profit, Panera Bread Co. has launched a Non-profit store in Missouri. Their mission for opening that store was to open their restaurant to new ways. Panera created a non-profit foundation that is running the store in Missouri. If this store is effective, then Panera hopes to have more locations with this mission. I think that it is great for a commercial restaurant to be thinking philanthropically. Since this store is in a high end neighborhood, many customers are "well-to-do" like lawyers, but with its "take what you need, leave your fair share' policy lower income individuals are able to go. Some may pay full price, while others decide to have discounts or pay half. Panera's Foundation is paying salaries, rent and the food costs for the restaurant. I hope this model is effective and works for other businesses. This is big news for the non-profit world, because it seems in a far from distant future, philanthropy and business will collaborate to provide a world of giving. I read this article in the Daily Camera. If you would like to read it, read about SAME Cafe here in Denver or learn about Panera's new 'pay as you want' store, links will be provided below or copy/paste onto your browser. Have a great week!

Rachelle

Student Staff

Center for Urban Connections

http://tinyurl.com/23wmxtg

http://www.soallmayeat.org/

http://www.panerabread.com/

National Get Outdoors Day!

Hey All!

Just wanted to let you of a website promoting the great outdoors! Hope you guys can enjoy the sunshine and free time by going outside for fresh air, walking, biking camping or swimming. Those are just a few ideas where one can embrace the outdoors and this beautiful place we live in!

Here is the link:http://www.nationalgetoutdoorsday.org/

Have a great week and summer or if your taking summer school, cherish these next couple of weeks to have fun and relax!

Rachelle

CUC Student Staff

Center for Urban Connections

Post Comcast Cares Day Article

Here is a article about Comcast Cares Day, which was on Saturday April 24th,2010. Metro State was honored to partner with Comcast and receive a makeover. Please follow the link to read more about Comcast Cares Day.

http://www.mscd.edu/~collcom/artman/publish/comcast_twv7042810.shtml

Have a great afternoon!

Rachelle

Student Staff

Center for Urban Connections

Its Almost Summer!

Hey Everyone-

Hope that all of your finals are going well and if you are graduating, Congrats! You did it. The Center for Urban Connections will stay open during the summer, and we hope you come in to check out cool volunteer opportunities for you to check out! Here is a interesting article about the commencement and some stats from our very own school website. Here is the link for the article:http://www.mscd.edu/newsroom/top_story/2010/may6.shtml

Have a great summer break!

Rachelle

Student Staff

Center for Urban Connections

What is Campus Compact?

Hi All-

I wanted to inform everyone about a great organization called Campus Compact. Campus Compact is a national coalition of more than 1,100 college and university presidents - representing some 6 million students - dedicated to promoting community service, civic engagement, and service-learning in higher education. Its a great place for students to find and connect doing volunteer work in our community. There is a wonderful book out there on the Campus Compact website called, Raise Your Voice: A Student Guide to Making Positive Change. This book is designed to help all of you succeed in making change happen and tools to help individuals to structure all of their ideas. Please visit the Campus Compact website as well as learn more about the book! Here is the link:

http://www.compact.org/

AND

http://www.e2e-store.com/compact/compact-product.cgi?category_id=10&product_id=144

Thanks for reading & have a great week!

Rachelle

Student Staff

Center for Urban Connections